"Zane Grey - Betty Zane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grey Zane)

restored to health many a settler when all had despaired.

The Zane brothers were best known on the border for their athletic prowess,
and for their knowledge of Indian warfare and cunning. They were all powerful
men, exceedingly active and as fleet as deer. In appearance they were
singularly pleasing and bore a marked resemblance to one another, all having
smooth faces, clear cut, regular features, dark eyes and long black hair.

When they were as yet boys they had been captured by Indians, soon after their
arrival on the Virginia border, and had been taken far into the interior, and
held as captives for two years. Ebenezer, Silas, and Jonathan Zane were then
taken to Detroit and ransomed. While attempting to swim the Scioto river in an
effort to escape, Andrew Zane had been shot and killed by his pursuers.

But the bonds that held Isaac Zane, the remaining and youngest brother, were
stronger than those of interest or revenge such as had caused the captivity of
his brothers. He was loved by an Indian princess, the daughter of Tarhe, the
chief of the puissant Huron race. Isaac had escaped on various occasions, but
had always been retaken, and at the time of the opening of our story nothing
had been heard of him for several years, and it was believed he had been
killed.

At the period of the settling of the little colony in the wilderness,
Elizabeth Zane, the only sister, was living with an aunt in Philadelphia,
where she was being educated.

Colonel Zane's house, a two story structure built of rough hewn logs, was the
most comfortable one in the settlement, and occupied a prominent site on the
hillside about one hundred yards from the fort. It was constructed of heavy
timber and presented rather a forbidding appearance with its square corners,
its ominous looking portholes, and strongly barred doors and windows. There
were three rooms on the ground floor, a kitchen, a magazine room for military
supplies, and a large room for general use. The several sleeping rooms were on
the second floor, which was reached by a steep stairway.

The interior of a pioneer's rude dwelling did not reveal, as a rule, more than
bare walls, a bed or two, a table and a few chairs--in fact, no more than the
necessities of life. But Colonel Zane's house proved an exception to this.
Most interesting was the large room. The chinks between the logs had been
plastered up with clay and then the walls covered with white birch bark;
trophies of the chase, Indian bows and arrows, pipes and tomahawks hung upon
them; the wide spreading antlers of a noble buck adorned the space above the
mantel piece; buffalo robes covered the couches; bearskin rugs lay scattered
about on the hardwood floor. The wall on the western side had been built over
a huge stone, into which had been cut an open fireplace.

This blackened recess, which had seen two houses burned over it, when full of
blazing logs had cheered many noted men with its warmth. Lord Dunmore, General
Clark, Simon Kenton, and Daniel Boone had sat beside that fire. There
Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, had made his famous deal with Colonel Zane,